OK, guys, here's the deal. The House yesterday passed an extension of the middle-class tax cuts and only the middle class tax cuts. Lookit:

The House on Thursday passed a bill that would extend the Bush-era tax cuts only to the middle class, a mostly symbolic measure that nonetheless allows Democrats to draw a contrast with Republicans on the issue.

The bill passed by a 234-to-188 vote, with 20 Democrats bucking their party to oppose the measure and three Republicans voting in favor. The proposal would extend the Bush-era tax cuts only to individuals earning $200,000 or less per year and families earning $250,000 or less.

[...]

The bill stands little chance of passing in the Senate, where Republican leaders have vowed a filibuster.

"Regardless of what the majority forces House Republicans to do, it's not going to go anywhere," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters Wednesday night. "We are going to extend the current tax rates; we're not going to raise taxes on anybody. The only thing we're discussing now is just how long that extension will be."

OK, now here's where the tricky part comes in. You guys have the GOP right where you want them. If they want to filibuster, you need to say, "Go ahead." And once they do, you blanket the airwaves and repeat, non-stop, the following message: "The House has already voted to keep taxes low for 98% of Americans. Senate Democrats are eager to pass this extension as well because the last thing we want to do is raise taxes on 98% of the country in this economy. But the Republicans won't give us an up-or-down vote. They would rather see everyone's taxes go up if it means that Paris Hilton and LeBron James might not be able to buy their ninth houses."

Or even more simply: "The GOP is holding your tax cuts hostage because they want Paris Hilton to be able to afford another pool."

Guys, this is a layup. I'm begging, begging, begging you to not eff this up. The GOP will eventually cave on this as they don't want to be responsible for everyone's taxes increasing in January. This is your chance to make these guys eat a giant crap sandwich and come out of it on top. Please, please, please do the right thing. Demand an up or down vote on the middle class tax cut extension.

That is all.

UPDATE: Just after I typed up this post last night, I came across this:

The White House isn’t overly impressed with Nancy Pelosi’s rapid passage of a measure permanently extending tax cuts only for middle-class earners – or by reports that a deal with the GOP on the cuts is imminent.

In a statement seemingly intended to douse the entire Hill in cold water, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs faintly praised Democrats’ passage of the extension for families making $250,000: “The President continues to believe that extending middle class tax cuts is the most important thing we can do for our economy right now and he applauds the House for passing a permanent extension.”

He quickly added: “But, because Republicans have made it clear that they won’t pass a middle class extension without also extending tax cuts for the wealthy, the President has asked Director Lew and Secretary Geithner to work with Congress to find a way forward. Those discussions started just yesterday and are continuing this afternoon.”

Hill Democrats were unimpressed and said Gibbs’s statement only served to reinforce their fear that the administration had already given up the idea of challenging the GOP to vote for the middle-class cuts – or let all of them expire by the end of the year.

But if a deal is really in the offing, Gibbs warned that it would come later rather than sooner.

That does it. Obama needs to face a strong primary challenger. And no, I don't care if it costs the Democrats the White House in 2012. Obama had a golden opportunity to have an actual victory -- the first he's had since he killed that fly back in 2009 -- and he's flushing it down the crapper. We cannot have this guy representing us anymore. He is too weak to lead.

Overheard conversation between a couple of 15-year olds recently:

"OMG, have you heard? No one likes him. They're all telling me what a jerk he is."

"Oh, I know. He just doesn't have a clue about anything, does he?"

That clip from Morning Joe at the top almost gets to that, with Scarborough's snide suggestion that the Senators just think President Obama is clueless. Assume the Scarborough Seven would include Ben Nelson, Max Baucus, Mark Warner, Blanche Lincoln, Joe Lieberman and who else? (By the way, I make that assumption because of the assertion that he's 'gotta get Republicans' in there...no progressive Senator would say that.)

Greg Sargent:

Sure, Scarborough could very well be exaggerating wildly or makin' it up. But you know something? Having watched Congress up close for the past two years -- the backbiting, the shortsightedness, the scheming, the elevation of individual careers over party, and the bizarre addiction some Dems have to currying favor with journalists and outlets who are openly hostile to them -- It wouldn't surprise me at all if there's some truth to it.

Assuming "all those Senators" actually said what Joey says they said, it makes sense because of the jockeying right now between BlueDogs and the rest of the Democrats. Keep the message out in the media via the one guy willing to act as megaphone in the hopes Democrats will move right at a time where they should absolutely be moving left.

As you might have noticed, Krugman is exceedingly anxious this days, and his column reflects it. After all, the Dems are about to get hit with a right-wing tsunami if the Republicans take control of the House, and yet, Obama's still trying to hit the ball down the Moderate Middle. It's like watching a train wreck in slow motion.

I just can't imagine Hillary Clinton sitting back and letting the Republicans get away with this crap all over again. Can you?

So what will happen if, as expected, Republicans win control of the House? We already know part of the answer: Politico reports that they’re gearing up for a repeat performance of the 1990s, with a “wave of committee investigations” — several of them over supposed scandals that we already know are completely phony. We can expect the G.O.P. to play chicken over the federal budget, too; I’d put even odds on a 1995-type government shutdown sometime over the next couple of years.

It will be an ugly scene, and it will be dangerous, too. The 1990s were a time of peace and prosperity; this is a time of neither. In particular, we’re still suffering the after-effects of the worst economic crisis since the 1930s, and we can’t afford to have a federal government paralyzed by an opposition with no interest in helping the president govern. But that’s what we’re likely to get.

If I were President Obama, I’d be doing all I could to head off this prospect, offering some major new initiatives on the economic front in particular, if only to shake up the political dynamic. But my guess is that the president will continue to play it safe, all the way into catastrophe.

You go, girl! When I read this earlier, I thought, "Why are the Dems giving this away without using it as a bargaining chip?" Once again, we see that the Speaker is the only one with real cojones:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi struck a combative tone tonight, rejecting the Medicare "doc fix" passed hastily through the Senate Friday until Senate Republicans allow a vote on jobs measures that have passed through the House.

"I see no reason to pass this inadequate bill until we see jobs legislation coming out of the Senate," said Pelosi in a statement.

"House Democrats are saying to Republicans in the Senate: Show us the jobs! (exclamation mark hers)"Her statement, along with Senate Republicans' unwillingness to pass any legislation that adds to the debt, means that Medicare doctors can expect a 21 percent pay cut when claims that have been held for two weeks start to be processed by Medicare's government administrator on Monday. Senate Democrats could not muster 60 votes twice this week when they considered bills more to Pelosi's liking. They passed the last-minute doc fix bill to avert the 21 percent pay cut to Medicare doctors on Friday afternoon, even as the pay cut was scheduled to take effect.

From Pelosi's office:
Pelosi to Senate Republicans: Show Us the Jobs

Washington, D.C.--Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement in response to Senate Republicans' refusal to pass jobs legislation along with the inadequate six months physician payment extension bill:

"The inadequate legislation on physicians' fees that Senate Republicans allowed to pass today is a great disappointment. The House has approved long-term reform that ensures that Medicare patients will have access to quality physicians' services.

"The bill Senate Republicans allowed to pass is not only inadequate with respect to physician fees, but it ignores urgent sections of the House bill to provide jobs. The House has repeatedly sent jobs-creating bills to the Senate since December -- Build America Bonds, small business hiring incentives, and importantly, summer jobs -- and yet Republicans continue to block approval of jobs legislation.

“What is it that Republicans in the Senate and House don't understand about the need for jobs in America?

"I see no reason to pass this inadequate bill until we see jobs legislation coming out of the Senate. House Democrats are saying to Republicans in the Senate: Show us the jobs!"

David DeGraw: Will Americans passively accept the slow death of debt slavery?

Grist: Brits mad, and worried about BP bashing

Lawyers, Guns & Money: Morbidly comic soccer nationalism at a fever pitch

Just An Earth-Bound Misfit: Surpassing the Chimperor

Corrente: Dems to unemployed: Go die!

Helena Cobban: Clumsy disinformation on Saudi Arabia?

This really does seem odd -- and of course, you can never put anything past the Republicans. Democrats have already called for him to drop out. I wonder what happens next with this bizarre tale:

Greene insists that he paid the $10,400 filing fee and all other campaign expenses from his own personal funds. "It was 100 percent out of my pocket. I’m self-managed. It’s hard work, and just getting my message to supporters. I funded my campaign 100 percent out of my pocket and self-managed," said Greene, who sounded anxious and unprepared to speak to the public.

But despite his lack of election funds, Greene claims to have criss-crossed the state during his campaign—though he declined to specify any of the towns or places he visited or say how much money he spent while on the road.

"It wasn’t much, I mean, just, it was—it wasn’t much. Not much, I mean, it wasn’t much," he said, when asked how much of his own money he spent in the primary. Greene frequently spoke in rapid-fire, fragmentary sentences, repeating certain phrases or interrupting himself multiple times during the same sentence while he searched for the right words. But he was emphatic about certain aspects of his candidacy, insisting that details about his campaign organization, for instance, weren't relevant. "I'm not concentrating on how I was elected—it's history. I’m the Democratic nominee—we need to get talking about America back to work, what's going on, in America."

The oddity of Greene’s candidacy has already prompted speculation from local media about whether he might be a Republican plant. But Greene denies that Republicans or anyone else had approached him about running. "No, no—no one approached me. This is my decision," he said. A 13-year military veteran, he says he had originally gotten the idea in 2008 when he was serving in Korea. "I just saw the country was in bad shape two years ago…the country was declining," he says. "I wanted to make sure we continue to go up on the right track."

But when asked whether there was a specific person or circumstance that precipitated his decision to jump into politics, Greene simply replied: "nothing in particular...it's just, uh, nothing in particular." South Carolina Democratic Party Chairwoman Carol Fowler speculated that Greene won because his name appeared first on the ballot, and voters unfamiliar with both candidates chose alphabetically.

Greene has yet to speak to any Democratic officials, either. After filing to run, his campaign went dark.

According to this report, he didn’t show up to the South Carolina Democratic Party convention in April and didn't file any of the required paperwork for candidates with the state or Federal Election Commission. When I spoke to him, the state’s Democrats had yet to contact him after his victory was announced.Greene insists that he's planning to work with state and national officials to ramp up his campaign and raise money "as soon as I can." And he plans on putting his unemployment at the center of his campaign. "I’m currently one of the many unemployed in the state and this country. South Carolina has more unemployed now than at any other time," Greene says. "My campaign slogan: Let's get South Carolina back to work." He adds that he would like to see "one Korea under a democracy."

[...] Update: Via the AP, Greene is facing a felony charge for allegedly showing obscene photos to a University of South Carolina student.

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) shows the kind of spirit and initiative required to drum some sense into the debate about how long President Obama intends to keep our troops in Afghanistan.

Unfortunately, there aren't many Democratic politicians willing to stand with him in an election year. Listen to what he says - he's not anti-war, he understands the need for a military and that there is a time and place to use military force. But spending our soldiers' blood and our nation's treasure against unclear objectives and without clear progress toward achievable objectives just isn't wise.

As the war in Afghanistan surpasses the Vietnam war in length and cost, maybe the Dems will find their courage after the mid-terms.

If I had a dollar for every person I've met in the past few weeks who believes the Dems just added another tier of unemployment checks, we wouldn't even need a Tier 5. I hate to sound like a broken record, but it still astounds me that Democrats are saying there's "no political will" to add another tier of unemployment benefits, that they're not hearing "any popular support" for spending the money.

That's because people think that's what Congress just passed, you morans. Are the Congressional Dems really that stupid and out of touch? Yes, they are. And they'll pay for it dearly in the mid-terms. And you know what? They deserve whatever happens if they let all these despairing people fall off the unemployment rolls.

From The Pew Foundation:

Americans are united in the belief that the economy is in bad shape (92% give it a negative rating), and for many the repercussions are hitting close to home. Fully 70% of Americans say they have faced one or more job or financial-related problems in the past year, up from 59% in February 2009. Jobs have become difficult to find in local communities for 85% of Americans. A majority now says that someone in their household has been without a job or looking for work (54%); just 39% said this in February 2009. Only a quarter reports receiving a pay raise or a better job in the past year (24%), while almost an equal number say they have been laid off or lost a job (21%). Read more:

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Well, if you were only to listen to Beltway media Villagers like Suzanne Gamboa at the AP, you'd think that President Obama had magically swept immigration reform off the national agenda by simply pointing out that getting it passed would be tough -- one day before Democrats unveiled their "framework" for comprehensive immigration reform.

As Bob Menendez explains to John King in the video above, the proposal includes lots of Republican ideas, mostly as a standing invitation to Republicans to actually participate in the process rather than resorting to the reflexive opposition that's come to characterize their behavior in the past year. Whether they will or not is going to be up to them -- though Democrats will be capable of at least proceeding with the debate without them.

And at this point -- considering that it took over a year to pass health-care reform -- that's probably the best Dems can hope for. But there's no doubt it's past time to begin the national discussion. Immigration reform is far from dead.

Here's a PDF of the Democrats' framework. And as you can see, it has a lot of good ideas in it -- and one amazingly, gobsmackingly bad one.

Adam Luna at America's Voice offers a preview of the pros and cons of the framework provided so far:

The pros:

1. The framework describes a plan to immediately register undocumented immigrants and establishes a temporary immigration status so that they can work legally, pay taxes, travel abroad, and no longer live in fear of deportation. Eligible immigrants and temporary protected status (TPS) holders will be considered for the first step of the legalization program, an interim “Lawful Prospective Immigrant” (LPI) status, as soon as the program is up and running. After eight years, these immigrants can apply for green cards and get on a path to full U.S. citizenship.

2. DREAM Act is included.

3. AgJOBS is included.

4. Permanent partners immigration provisions included.

5. On family-based immigration: family immigration backlog would be cleared in eight years. Spouses and children of Legal Permanent Residents are moved to “immediate relative” immigration category, reducing their waiting period to enter the U.S. now and in the future

6. Increased labor protections and remedies, as well as a commission to determine future employment-based visa numbers based on labor market needs.

On the other hand, the framework also includes some provisions that many advocates for comprehensive immigration reform are not going to like, particularly in the enforcement sections. Senator Menendez said as much at yesterday’s press conference. Some of the “zero tolerance” language governing future deportation rules raises red flags, given our past experience with immigration laws like those passed in 1996. Legal experts are dissecting the outline now, and we look forward to their review of the detention and deportation provisions in the coming days.

But without question the worst idea in the plan is the proposal to create a biometric National ID system in which everyone in the country would be required to carry a card containing their personal histories embedded inside:

Democratic leaders have proposed requiring every worker in the nation to carry a national identification card with biometric information, such as a fingerprint, within the next six years, according to a draft of the measure.

The proposal is one of the biggest differences between the newest immigration reform proposal and legislation crafted by late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

The national ID program would be titled the Believe System, an acronym for Biometric Enrollment, Locally stored Information and Electronic Verification of Employment.

It would require all workers across the nation to carry a card with a digital encryption key that would have to match work authorization databases.

Continue reading »

Lesley Gore--It's My Party

This week should have been our party. A decades-long fight to bring America to the notion that health care should be a right, not a privilege has cleared the first, biggest hurdle: getting to the starting gate. The fight isn't over--not by a long shot--there are many hurdles yet to clear, but yet I see progressives everywhere demanding the right to cry. It's your party, Dems, cry if you want to.

I personally don't feel like crying. I recognize that this a marathon, and we're barely in Mile 1. We've got far to go before we've won this race, but I'm just happy we've started. I don't particularly understand those who are upset that we haven't crossed the finish line right now. To me, that completely disregards the hurdles that blocked us from the starting gate and that now pepper our pathway like landmines, waiting for us to take a wrong step.

Don't believe me? Look at the bookings: yet another Sunday of Republicans telling us that this is a slippery slope to the dreaded socialist/Maoist/Leninist state. People like Lamar Alexander on State of the Union, Jim DeMint and Michelle "Bat Crap Crazy" Bachmann on Face the Nation and Lindsey Graham on Meet the Press. And even on Chris Matthews, that learned panel of pundits thinks health care reform will ultimately be a "winner" for Republicans over the Democrats. But fear not, because we can always count on the GOP laying some landmines for themselves too. Look at the mano a mano between Florida senate rivals Charlie Crist and Marco Rubio on Fox News Sunday. So I'm taking the long view, pacing myself, but don't look to me to cry at this party.

ABC's "This Week" - White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett.

CBS' "Face the Nation" - Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.; Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn.; Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine.

NBC's "Meet the Press" - Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" - Panel: Howard Fineman, Kelly O'Donnell, Andrew Sullivan and Gloria Borger. Topics: Real Health Care Push: Will It Be A Winning Issue for Dems or Republicans? Elephants in the Room: Are Tea Partiers The Real Republicans Or Party Spoilers? Meter Questions: Will Health Care Be More of a Winning Issue for Republicans Than Democrats? YES: 8 NO: 4; Should Obama Move To the Center Instead of the Left As A Reelection Strategy? YES: 11 No: 1.

CNN's "State of the Union" - White House senior adviser David Axelrod; Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Barbara Mikulski, D-Md.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - Two great heads, probably the two most articulate commentators in the health care debate -- who happen to disagree on this bill -- Paul Krugman of Princeton and the New York Times and Robert Samuelson of Newsweek and the Washington Post, battle it out. But first, Fareed travels to Mexico City to speak with the President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, on the violent drug war wracking that country, sparking civilian death rates that rival Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Fox News Sunday" - Debate between Republican candidates for U.S. Senate: Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and former state House Speaker Marco Rubio.

So what's catching your eye this morning?